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ITV Report

5 June 2012 at 9:03am

When The Queen visited the Westcountry

During her Diamond Jubilee year, Her Majesty the Queen has been touring the country, on a series of regional visits to celebrate her sixty years on the throne. With the Duke of Edinburgh at her side, the South West leg of that tour brought her to Sherborne in Dorset on a rain-soaked tuesday at the beginning of May.

Outside the Abbey the rain eased off at last and the Queen took a short walk to meet those who brought flowers. Among the human well wishers - and there were thousands - a few canine ones too. Everyone knows the Queen loves corgis and she couldn't resist a chat with the owners of Floss, Mole and Milly.

The Queen took time to speak to three pooches: Floss, Mole and Milly. Credit: ITV West

Then it was on to Salisbury to meet the people of Wiltshire who greeted the Queen with 4,000 flags and 2,000 metres of bunting.

The Queen visiting Wiltshire Credit: ITV West

Day two of this leg of the Queen's tour brought her to Somerset on May 2nd, arriving at Yeovil Pen Mill station to more frantic flag waving and flowers.

Day 2: The Queen in Yeovil Credit: ITV West

At Ninesprings Country Park, she was shown a police horse named after Harry Patch, the last British soldier from World War One, who died in 2009.

Police introduce The Queen to horse, Harry Patch. Credit: ITV West

Down the road in Crewkerne, thousands more were waiting for their own glimpse of the Queen.

It's said to be the first visit to Crewkerne by a monarch for 400 years but worth the wait.

It's customary to get a telegram from her on your 100th birthday - Chrissy Eglon went one better - a chat with the Queen was the birthday treat to beat all others.

The Queen spoke to Chrissy Eglon on her 100th birthday Credit: ITV West

The final stop on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour of the Westcountry brought her to Exeter in Devon, a city she's visited many times during her reign and before. She toured the devastated remains of Exeter as a Princess after the second world war - this part of the city, now a shiny new shopping centre, is even named after her - "Princesshay".

The Queen unveiled a new development at Exeter University Credit: ITV West

She also took a trip to the university and was greeted by the chancellor Baroness Floella Benjamin. The Queen was here for the university's foundation in 1956 and this time she opened a new development, the Forum.

It's possible accepting bunch after bunch of flowers from people might get tedious but if it does the Queen never lets it show - after all for every one of the children in particular who gets that brief moment with her, this will be a memory to cherish.

She didn't spend long in the region but for those who saw her it was special and thousands more people now have their own probably shaky out of focus photograph and their own story to tell of the day the Queen waved to them.